The failure of Democrats’ Great Society approach
The left’s war on the poor and people of color continues apace as they spread narratives of victimization while pushing programs that make those groups dependent on government.
If that sounds harsh, tell me: what transformative benefits have decades of Great Society programs delivered? Why do disparities persist in wealth, health and other key measures?
Unwilling to acknowledge their failures, the left blames racism. Instead of displaying true compassion and humility by admitting their mistakes and seeking better ways to help those in need, they dodge accountability by making false claims about resurgent white supremacy.
Conservatives are often at a disadvantage when discussing poverty because Americans have been trained to believe, despite the evidence, that every problem admits a government solution.
The truth, as Ronald Reagan observed, is that “the most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
Conservatives, instead, believe in the great capacity of free people. Government – and private charities and neighbors – have a crucial role in helping those who have fallen on hard times, but institutions of dependence savage the soul.
Economic data both for the United States and North Carolina demonstrate the power of this approach to advance the opportunity for prosperity.
Despite the tired but effective canard about “tax cuts for the rich,” the biggest beneficiaries of the Trump administration’s pre-COVID-19 policies were the poor.
The Federal Reserve reported last month that between 2016 and 2019, real median income grew 9% for those who haven’t completed high school and 6.3% for Americans with only a high-school diploma.
In 2019, median income rose at a faster rate for Blacks, Hispanics and foreign-born workers than for whites. Despite the left’s claims about the evil patriarchy, the median income for women rose 7.8% last year and only 2.8% for men.
The Trump years have also reduced inequality. Between 2016 and 2019, the Fed reports, “families at the top of the income distribution and wealth distributions experienced very little, if any growth” in net worth “after experiencing large gains between 2013 and 2016,” during the thoroughly progressive Obama/Biden administration.
I couldn’t find comparable data for the poor and people of color in North Carolina, but the numbers we do have show broad economic benefits since the GOP won control of the legislature in 2011 and worked to cut taxes and regulations.
By just about every measure of wages and salaries – including personal income, disposable personal income, median household income and average weekly earnings – our state has enjoyed faster growth than the rest of the country.
Our rates of unemployment and poverty were lower in 2019 than they ever were in the pre-Great Recession 2000s, when Democrats controlled the state government and increased spending at an annual rate of 7.3% per year (2003-08); Republicans, by contrast, increased spending by 2.3 percent (2011-19).
As our economy has grown, our state’s balance sheet has rebounded. Revenues have increased at an annual rate of more than 3 percent under Republicans. North Carolina enjoys budget surpluses as well as healthy rainy day and unemployment funds – which helps explain why we’re not having massive layoffs of state employees due to COVID-19 like we did under Democrats when the Great Recession hit.
The left claims the GOP has starved government. But where’s the evidence the state knows better how to spend money than the people?
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 8:25 AM.